Microsoft Surface Pro beset by battery problems

You know a device has a problem with its battery life when its manufacturer starts touting a second battery that you can carry around “just in case”. Thorsten Heins did it when he launched the new BlackBerry Z10, and it’s since emerged the phone often conks out by 6pm. Microsoft is doing it now for its upcoming Surface Pro tablet.

The Surface with Windows 8 Pro, as the device is more properly known, doesn’t come out until this weekend in the US (with no word on when it will be out in Australia). But it’s already done the rounds of the American reviewers, and some of the reviews have been scathing about the Pro’s battery life.

“In my tough battery tests . . . the Surface Pro did pathetically. It lasted just under four hours between charges,” wrote Walt Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal.

The battery life was less than half that of an iPad, and three hours less than a Microsoft’s Surface RT, Mr Mossberg wrote.

It’s not entirely surprising, given that the Surface Pro is a much-more-powerful version of Microsoft’s much-maligned Surface RT tablet. Where the Surface RT has a mobile-phone-like ARM processor, the Surface Pro has a full-blown Intel Core processor, similar to what you’d find in a laptop. That’s actually a terrific feature, because it means the Pro will be able to run an absolute tonne of software - basically, every Windows app ever written - where the RT only has a limited number of apps.

Naturally, running a powerful processor comes at the cost of power, which is where the second battery pack comes in.

When someone in the Q&A asked “Does Microsoft have any plans for an external battery or for a thicker keyboard cover that has an extra battery?”, Microsoft’s response was this:

“That would require extending the design of the accessory spine to include some way to transfer higher current between the peripheral and the main battery. Which we did...”

So that’s more than a hint, really. That’s a non-confirmation confirmation.

But I know a better way to extend the battery life of an Intel-based Surface tablet, though. USE AN ATOM CHIP, YOU DUMMIES!

For heaven’s sake. Do we really need a full-blown Core processor, when Intel’s Atom processor is more than capable of running Windows 8 on a tablet, as we’ve seen from manufacturers such HP, Acer, Dell, Lenovo and Asus? Those manufacturers are getting eight or nine hours of usage on a single charge out of their Atom tablets, and 18 or 19 hours when they add a second battery that’s hidden inside a keyboard.

Why skirt around the issue by adding a second battery to the Pro? Microsoft should just the bite the bullet and come out with a third Surface, that sits between the RT and the Pro and that represents the best of both worlds. That’s the one I would buy. That’s the only one I would buy.

The Australian Financial Review

BY John Davidson

John Davidson is the award-winning sketch writer in charge
of Australia's pre-eminent (but sadly fictitious) Digital Life
Laboratories. A former computer programmer, documentary maker and
foreign correspondent, John now reviews all the gadgets he can ill
afford to own.

BY John Davidson

John Davidson is the award-winning sketch writer in charge
of Australia's pre-eminent (but sadly fictitious) Digital Life
Laboratories. A former computer programmer, documentary maker and
foreign correspondent, John now reviews all the gadgets he can ill
afford to own.